page_title: Timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 20th century
section_title: 1977
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 20th century / Timeline / 1970s / 1977
caption_attribution_description: English: Affirmation's logo
context_page_description: This is a timeline of LGBT Mormon history in the 20th century, part of a series of timelines consisting of events, publications, and speeches about LGBTQ+ individuals, topics around sexual orientation and gender minorities, and the community of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although the historical record is often scarce, evidence points to queer individuals having existed in the Mormon community since its beginnings. However, top LDS leaders only started regularly addressing queer topics in public in the late 1950s. Since 1970, the LDS Church has had at least one official publication or speech from a high-ranking leader referencing LGBT topics every year, and a greater number of LGBT Mormon and former Mormon individuals have received media coverage.
context_section_description: 1977 – A gay BYU student and a gay BYU instructor coauthored an open letter to refute the anti-gay teachings of BYU professor Reed Payne known as the "Payne Papers" pamphlet (later titled "Prologue"). This was anonymously mailed to all high-ranking LDS leaders and most BYU and Ricks College faculty causing a controversy and eliciting a response from apostle Boyd K. Packer in the form of his "To the One" 1978 BYU address on homosexuality and an article from the recently formed BYU Values Institute.
  1977 – Deseret Book published then apostle Ezra Taft Benson's book which stated, "Every form of homosexuality is wrong."
  April – In the April general conference presiding bishopric member J. Richard Clarke told a story of a young man who claimed to have "developed into a homosexual" as part of attention-seeking rebellion against his distant father. In the address homosexuality was called a "vitiating disease" and "prison".
  April – Another mention of homosexuality occurred in the April general conference when church president Spencer W. Kimball asked, "Is this a time to terminate adultery and homosexual and lesbian activities, and return to faith and worthiness?"
  June – The Relief Society general president sent a telegram to Anita Bryant for her "Save Our Children" campaign which stated, "On behalf of the one million members of the Relief Society ... we commend you, for your courageous and effective efforts in combatting [sic] homosexuality and laws which would legitimize this insidious life style [sic]."
  June – Under the name Affirmation: Gay Mormons United, the first Affirmation group was organized on 11 June in Salt Lake City by Stephan Zakharias (formerly Stephen James Matthew Prince) and a group of other Mormon and former-Mormon gays and lesbians at the conference for the Salt Lake Coalition for Human Rights. Stephan organized the group in response to the suicides of two BYU friends who had undergone shock aversion therapy on the campus. The original organization struggled to survive until 1978, when Paul Mortensen, inspired by an article on the group in The Advocate formed the Los Angeles chapter, and in 1980 the name was changed to Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons. Through the influence of the Los Angeles chapter, Affirmation groups began appearing in many cities around the US.
  September – With an invitation from LDS church leaders, Anita Bryant performed at the Utah State Fair on the 18th. Her presence prompted the first public demonstration from Utah's queer community, organized by gay, former-Mormon pastor Bob Waldrop, in what gay, former Mormon, and historian Seth Anderson referred to as "Utah's Stonewall."
  October – Church president Spencer W. Kimball gave an October conference address in which he spoke out against the "insidious" and "ugly" sins of homosexuality and lesbianism. He called homosexuality a "sin of the ages" that contributed to the downfall of ancient Greece, Rome, and Sodom and Gomorrah.
caption: Affirmation's logo
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